B-Greek: The Biblical Greek Forum

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I’m interested in the meaning of καιρος εις ωρας at Daniel 11:35 in the OG. Especially how ωρας is being used. Some time ago I heard a lecture by GK Beale and he suggested (I hope I’m remembering correctly) that John when using the phrase “last hour” (1Jn 2:18) was referencing the book of Daniel in the LXX. I’ve only now taken time to look into this and I found Dan 11:35 as a possible candidate for John’s use of ωρα. I need help in deciphering the below phrase:

Daniel 11:35.....until the time of consummation, for there is yet a time. ¶ “In that hour 36 the king will act according to his will

The NETS seems to break up the phrase differently from the way the text is punctuated. I know that punctuation is an editorial decision but what is the difficulty with construing εις ωρας with καιρος? How are we to understand καιρος εις ωρας?

There is no major difficulty in construing εις ωρας with καιρος, as per the LES: 'an appointed time for a season'.

As Biblical Hebrew doesn't have a specific word that means 'hour', the use of the Greek ωρα to translate the Hebrew מועד would be therefore using ωρα as meaning 'time-period, season, age', to which I can certainly see a correspondence to ἐσχάτη ὥρα in 1 John 2:18 (='final age').

There is no major difficulty in construing εις ωρας with καιρος, as per the LES: 'an appointed time for a season'.

As Biblical Hebrew doesn't have a specific word that means 'hour', the use of the Greek ωρα to translate the Hebrew מועד would be therefore using ωρα as meaning 'time-period, season, age', to which I can certainly see a correspondence to ἐσχάτη ὥρα in 1 John 2:18 (='final age').

I've been speaking modern Hebrew for so long that I wasn't aware that שָׁעָהšāʿā(h) didn't exist in biblical Hebrew! That's very interesting. It was an Aramaic word (see Daniel 3:6, 15; 4:30 and 5:5, in which it appears as either שַׁעֲתָהšaʿăṯā(h) and שַׁעֲתָאšaʿăṯā(ʾ)) that was apparently incorporated into Hebrew only after the Babylonian exile. It is possible that it existed in Hebrew even in biblical times but since it doesn't appear in the biblical corpus, that would be speculation. As far as we know, there was no biblical Hebrew word for "hour."

Even מִשְׁמֶ֫רֶתmišméreṯ is not used in the Bible as a "watch" in the sense of a division of time ("the first watch").